Meditation, that's what you need

[lethargic_man]

On Monday, I attended the Rosh Chodesh event at Moishe House. They're working their way through the Kabbalistic associations of the different months, which isn't very much my thing, but hey. I got to socialise a bit, and it ended with a nice singalong—including singing a niggun for צור משלו first alternately with, and then at the same time as the chorus for Kim Wilde's "You Keep Me Hanging On" and "Don't Walk In Front Of Me"^*—yay three chord melodies.

* The Jewish version, which adds to the original Camus quotation "and together we will walk in the path of Hashem".

Anyhow, I think all three Rosh Chodesh events of theirs I have been to have included at some point a ten minute guided meditation. I have gamely taken part in this and all other meditations I have come across, and I have to say not one has done a single thing for me. Possibly under the guidance of a professional that might not be the case for me; as it is, they really are a complete waste of my time.

Comments

[grumpyolddog.livejournal.com]

From experience, different minds handle meditation in different ways. Some people are capable of "empty mind" meditation without issue, others can do it but it's hard, some people do "walking meditation" by default and I'm sure many of us have experienced the gaps in time you get when driving a familiar route - ask yourself, do I remember everything that happened, every bend? Chances are, you don't.

The mind is good at slipping into an accepted pattern. Now, here's something I think may work for you.

Don't empty your mind. Fill it. Fill it to bursting. Try to think of everything, seize every thought and every image and hold as many as you can; embrace the chaos, as it were. Do it for long enough and you'll find that you're in a meditative state.

What you then do with that is, of course, entirely a matter for you.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

From experience, different minds handle meditation in different ways. Some people are capable of "empty mind" meditation without issue, others can do it but it's hard, some people do "walking meditation" by default and I'm sure many of us have experienced the gaps in time you get when driving a familiar route - ask yourself, do I remember everything that happened, every bend? Chances are, you don't.

I get the impression there's a difference between meditation and running on autopilot, in that you're supposed to get something positive out of the former.

The mind is good at slipping into an accepted pattern. Now, here's something I think may work for you.

Don't empty your mind. Fill it. Fill it to bursting. Try to think of everything, seize every thought and every image and hold as many as you can; embrace the chaos, as it were. Do it for long enough and you'll find that you're in a meditative state.

I tried that the next time I was at a Moishe House event involving meditation; and couldn't manage it: my mind refused to accept more than one thing at a time.